Not to fixate, but 60K A SEMESTER???? I went to a really expensive school and it STILL cost less than that for a whole year! And that's including the cost of living!

EDITED TO ADD: Seriously. That's such a rip off that I'm wondering about how valid the institution is. I mean, I went to a fucking Ivy League school. Those are notoriously expensive. I'd seriously question any program that charged that much. I mean, looking it up on the interwebs, the most expensive undergrad program in the country is still hovering a little over 50K/year. And that's likely with room and board.

I want to stress that's not normal. Like I said, the MOST expensive private college in the US is 58K (Sarah Lawrence) but that's for a full year with room and board. The US does actually have a really solid network of public universities in state (better in some states than in others) that are substantially cheaper. In fact, some of the best medical schools in the country are some of the state universities. They're good, they're cheap, and so there is a lot of competition.

Besides, a number of the top schools have instituted really REALLY good financial aid policies. If you're interested in going to a top school and your parents don't make a lot of money, a lot of those schools have instituted loan free financial aid. You don't have to pay back anything.

The trick isn't that all American schools are too expensive (though there are certainly those that are, and to say they're cheap is wholly inaccuate). The trick is that American students aren't taught to properly research their aid options. The trick is that the American public school system, on the whole, (there are exceptions, of course) does not adequately help students select schools that they can afford, with or without aid.

Sorry, this is something I feel very strongly about. Including that the aforementioned 60K/semester program is a load of shit.

Yeah, I'd like to see a citation to back up that 60K per semester claim.

There are thousands of colleges and universities in the United States, both public and private, that have wildly different tuitions. Dork is absolutely right, you can get a phenominal education in the US for very little money if you are willing to do a little research and not hung up on a prestigious name, You can even attend top ranked schools for very little with scholarships, etc. Even if you decided to NOT try to get any kind of scholarship or financial aid, and paid right out of pocket for the highest ranked schools, I very much doubt you would be paying anything close to 60K a semester.

Alright, I probably should have looked into the claim a little more before posting about it. I can admit when I'm wrong. It looks like the most expensive colleges are a little under $60k a year.

I assume my friend meant $60k for a year rather than a semester (maybe a year/8 months is considered a full semester some places?), and was probably including board. It's still pretty ridiculous though, I think.

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